Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Amway - Desperate IBOs?

In recent comments, one thing I have seen about Amway IBOs is "desperation". I believe this to be true as IBOs who are trying to build a business are in a precarious position. For one thing, Amway products in general are not priced at a competitive level with big retailers so IBOs are at a disadvantage. Lacking retail sales, and IBO must self consume 100 PV, which can cost about $300 or so on average. Most people that I know do not spend $300 a month on consumables, toilet paper and vitamins that IBOs claims simply "replaces your shopping habits" Even when I threw a party for 40 guests at my home, I still did not spend $300 at Costco that month for my own goods plus the party.

So why are IBOs "desperate"? I believe it is because the cost of the goods starts to become a burden for most IBOs and the disadvantage in cost makes selling products very very difficult. So with that in mind, the only other way for an IBO to increase volume is to sponsor downline IBOs in the hopes that they will also move volume. Thus IBOs do not get paid directly for recruiting (which allows Amway to remain legal), but the emphasis of most business builders is to sponsor downline because selling is more difficult. And because many IBOs are "desperate" to generate volume, they resort to trickery, deceit, and sometimes outright lies in order to get people to a recruitment meeting. It is why Amway has developed a reputation in North America. I believe Amway sales in North America is shrinking because of this, but I cannot confirm it since Amway no longer reports North American sales seperate from their global sales.

But this continued emphasis on sponsoring and showing the plan is the very reason why most IBOs can never build a sustainable business. For example, the Walton family can take a trip to Mars and WalMart will continue to have their sales go through the roof because they offer good products and rock bottom prices. Customers see value in WalMart goods and will shop there loyally for decades to come. Amway IBOs rely on IBOs joining and primarily self consuming products. This doesn't work because two thirds of IBOs quit in less than a year, possibly because there's not enough value in remaining, and the vast majority of the remaining IBOs quit within a year or a few years thereafter. Some diamonds may be able to keep replacing the quitters, at least enough to sustain some Amway income, but probably not enough to "walk away" from their businesses. For smaller volume IBOs, they simply cannot keep replacing what few downline they may have had, and eventually, they quit too.

For many, it's hard to quit if they were "serious" for a while because they have invested time and money and they are hopeful that their investment will eventually pay off. But at some point, it seems that desperation eventually sets in. Even diamonds who may be living bonus check to bonus check, probably cannot quit because they too, have invested much time and effort into their business. But recently, we have seen evidence of what I speak about. Diamonds quitting, diamonds resigning, and diamonds in financial difficulty. The writing is on the wall.

About Me

I am writing this blog based on my experiences in the Amway/Quixtar business and the opinions I have formed based on those experiences.
I ran a 4000 PV business (with eagle parameters) only to discover that I was not profitable!
I'm not here to encourage any IBOs to quit, nor do I wish anyone to fail. I do encourage IBOs to ask their upline tough questions and I encourage IBOs to closely monitor their profit and losses as does a traditional business owner.

Guess who won? Amway – Prices Comptetive? Funny Story, the other day at work, I get a call from a friend, asking me to deliver a package f...

Followers

Privacy Policy

Information Collection:

All web servers trace very basic information about their visitors. This information includes, but is not limited to, IP addresses, browser details, timestamps and referring pages. None of this information can personally identify specific visitors to this site. The information is tracked for routine administration and maintenance purposes.

Cookies:

Where necessary, this site uses cookies to store information about a visitor's preferences and history. Advertising partners and other third parties may also use cookies, scripts and/or web beacons to track visitors to our site in order to display advertisements and other useful information. Such tracking is done directly by the third parties through their own servers and is subject to their own privacy policies.

Privacy:

Note that you can change your browser settings to disable cookies if you have privacy concerns. Disabling cookies for all sites is not recommended as it may interfere with your use of some sites. The best option is to disable or enable cookies on a per-site basis. Consult your browser documentation for instructions on how to block cookies and other tracking mechanisms.